`SEINFELD' HOUSING EYED DOWNTOWN; PROFESSIONALS WANT TO LIVE IN CENTER, SOME SAY.

Byline: Lee Condon Staff Writer

Downtown Glendale has plenty of hustle and bustle on weekdays when workers at local office towers flood stores and restaurants. But at night and on weekends, the action slows down.

The situation has city officials considering a new vision for downtown Glendale - housing.

Proponents say they believe the young professionals working at local businesses, such as Disney and DreamWorks, would be interested in living downtown, close to where they work.

``Some people have said it's the Seinfeld effect,'' said Jeanne Armstrong, director of development for the city of Glendale, relating the theory that young adults want to mimic the downtown lifestyle of the characters on the ``Seinfeld'' television show. ``Young people want to live like that.''

Encouraged by interest from developers, city officials are talking about mixing in urban housing with new retail and office projects.

``It's sort of the evolution or the next step in creating a healthy downtown core,'' Armstrong said. ``Adding people who live in the downtown area is a good thing. It provides more customers for our small business, and there's less traffic than from retail or office projects.''

Downtown housing could major component of the Town Center, a proposed retail development that city officials hope will someday be the centerpiece of downtown Glendale.

The idea for downtown housing came from developers who have approached various city departments. In reaction, city staff members have been studying the issue and recently made a presentation to the Glendale City Council. The council members have asked the staff to continue investigating the idea.

Some on the council are cool to the concept.

``It doesn't seem to me that is what downtowns are for,'' said Mayor Ginger Bremberg. ``I wouldn't in any way, shape or form go for rental housing. It would have to be high-end townhouses or condos.''

Bremberg noted that land prices in the downtown area have escalated in recent years, making it difficult for retail projects work. For the housing idea to work, she said, developers would have to build high density projects.

``The density these people are talking about is absolutely incredible,'' Bremberg said.

Councilman Gus Gomez said the staff is pushing the issue in response to developers' interest in downtown housing.

``I don't think developers should be setting the agenda for the city. That's up to the City Council,'' Gomez said.

He suspects the whole point is to get the council to increase the housing density allowed in the downtown area. Gomez wants the density to stay at 40 units per acre.

``The downtown area is already too crowded,'' Gomez said. ``We need parks. We need open space. We don't need higher density.''

But Councilman Sheldon Baker likes the idea.

``I think it would bring a vibrancy to downtown,'' Baker said.

Baker said he favors low-rise complexes and does not think density is a major issue. He said city officials have long contemplated downtown housing in their planning efforts. The push is coming now because developers are eager to build.

``We have people who are interested. They think there is real potential,'' Baker said.

Recently, architect Doug Suisman advised the Glendale City Council about the advantages and disadvantages of downtown housing.

Suisman said there is already a lot of residential housing surrounding downtown streets, but there is little in the central business district along Brand Boulevard and Central Avenue. Despite an increase in office and retail buildings downtown, Glendale has not added housing. Suisman said in new developments, three or four stories of housing could be built atop retail developments.

``A lot of people imagine downtown Glendale with all these new nightclubs and restaurants and stores. But they aren't willing to take steps to support them with people who live there,'' Suisman said.

``Because of all the investment in Glendale by DreamWorks and Disney, it could become a young professional downtown. There's a population of young professionals who probably would love not having to drive that far to work and who want to live in an urban downtown.''

He said there are many single men and women among the young professionals.

Urban housing would also allow local stores to be supported by local people, rather than being forced to draw in outsiders.

``Some people feel they don't want to be Old Town Pasadena. We don't want to become a regional entertainment center,'' Suisman said. ``If you have enough people living downtown, they can sustain the shops and restaurants without bringing in huge numbers of people from outside.''

Suisman said that like any new development, housing could cause more of a crunch in parking and traffic. However, he said, housing would have less effect on traffic than a new office tower, which would add more car trips into the city at the already overloaded rush-hour times.

Town Center development is now in limbo.

Earlier this year the developer, Donahue Schriber, pulled out, citing the high cost of land in downtown Glendale and the collapse of the plans for a hotel and a theater complex.

Since then, city officials have been investigating how downtown housing might fit into a new, revived Town Center and other parts of the city's central business district.

Burbank City Manager Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom said his city has encouraged downtown housing for senior citizens but has not pushed other downtown housing. The Burbank Unified School district has discouraged the city on housing because schools in the downtown area are already crowded.

Ovrom said he too has been interested in creating housing for young professionals downtown.

But he said cities have little control over who actually moves in. Apartment owners can't discriminate against families who want to move into trendy housing intended for single people.

``The school district's position is that if you build hip, cool housing, kids will still move in. If you build housing, kids will come, period,'' Ovrom said.

``If you make the housing too expensive for one family, two families will move in instead of one family.''

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corporation of Los Angeles, said housing supports downtown areas because it provides nighttime and weekend customers for downtown businesses.

The time is right for such projects because the county has a housing shortage of 107,000 units, Kyser said.

``It stretches your market base to 24 hours,'' Kyser said. ``It's a very smart idea.''